Alison Bechdel: I Am Not Gary Trudeau

So far in Ladydrawers, we've looked at differences in the way women are portrayed and paid in the comics industry, and some of the arguments brought up when women in the industry argue for more equitable treatment. But how does this end up looking on a creator level—and what kinds of content can emerge when an entire class of media makers isn't fully supported?

The next few installments of Ladydrawers investigates these questions by talking directly to creators. First up, Part 1 of an exclusive interview with Alison Bechdel, currently on tour with the latest edition of Best American Comics. Her deeply engaged political work—particularly the long-running series Dykes to Watch Out For—has given an entire generation a vocabulary for thinking about LGBT rights. Anne Elizabeth Moore spoke to her about how changes in media affected her strip, how gender affects the abiity of work to be perceived as political, and her comfort in the comics industry

Gabrielle Gamboa is an artist, illustrator, and arts educator. She first self-published mini-comics as a member of the Puppy Toss collective, and her comics have been published in Bust Magazine and anthologies such as Scheherazade, Top Shelf, and Duplex Planet. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and insane cat. You can view her work at www.gabriellegamboa.com.

Anne Elizabeth Moore is a cultural critic and author of several award-winning, best-selling nonfiction books including Unmarketable (The New Press) and Cambodian Grrrl (Cantankerous Titles). She is a Fulbright scholar and was a USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Fellow. Her work has appeared in The Baffler, Al Jazeera, Salon, The Onion, Talking Points Memo, Wilson Quarterly, Tin House, and in international art exhibitions, including the Whitney Biennial and solo shows at the MCA Chicago. She has appeared on CNN, NPR, Voice of America, and in The New York Times, among others, and currently lives in Chicago. Threadbare: Clothes, Sex, and Trafficking comes out in May.

Alison Bechdel: I Am Not Gary Trudeau

So far in Ladydrawers, we've looked at differences in the way women are portrayed and paid in the comics industry, and some of the arguments brought up when women in the industry argue for more equitable treatment. But how does this end up looking on a creator level—and what kinds of content can emerge when an entire class of media makers isn't fully supported?

The next few installments of Ladydrawers investigates these questions by talking directly to creators. First up, Part 1 of an exclusive interview with Alison Bechdel, currently on tour with the latest edition of Best American Comics. Her deeply engaged political work—particularly the long-running series Dykes to Watch Out For—has given an entire generation a vocabulary for thinking about LGBT rights. Anne Elizabeth Moore spoke to her about how changes in media affected her strip, how gender affects the abiity of work to be perceived as political, and her comfort in the comics industry

Gabrielle Gamboa is an artist, illustrator, and arts educator. She first self-published mini-comics as a member of the Puppy Toss collective, and her comics have been published in Bust Magazine and anthologies such as Scheherazade, Top Shelf, and Duplex Planet. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and insane cat. You can view her work at www.gabriellegamboa.com.

Anne Elizabeth Moore is a cultural critic and author of several award-winning, best-selling nonfiction books including Unmarketable (The New Press) and Cambodian Grrrl (Cantankerous Titles). She is a Fulbright scholar and was a USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Fellow. Her work has appeared in The Baffler, Al Jazeera, Salon, The Onion, Talking Points Memo, Wilson Quarterly, Tin House, and in international art exhibitions, including the Whitney Biennial and solo shows at the MCA Chicago. She has appeared on CNN, NPR, Voice of America, and in The New York Times, among others, and currently lives in Chicago. Threadbare: Clothes, Sex, and Trafficking comes out in May.